“Construction is an important component of our growth strategy”

ebm-papst is investing in a number of construction projects. Thomas Wagner, Chief Operating Officer at the ebm-papst Group, tells us why.

March 2018

You opened the new distribution center in Hollenbach in May 2017. But ebm-papst is pushing on with other construction projects. What are you working on now?

There are many projects. We held the dedication ceremony for the second phase of the extension in St. Georgen in September. We had groundbreaking ceremonies for an extension in Herbolzheim and for a completely new building in Lauf. In Mulfingen, we’ll begin construction of a new development center with floor space of 18,500 square meters in the third quarter of 2018.

And what’s happening at the locations around the world?

A factory expansion was just completed in the Czech Republic, and we recently opened a new plant in Serbia. We’re expanding our site in Tapolca, Hungary, and we’ll be opening a new plant in the coming year in Romania. In October we decided to build a new plant in China, which should start production in early 2019.

Do any projects have priority?

We push these projects according to the needs of our business. We have so much construction in progress now because we’re working near our capacity limits at almost all of our sites.

How much of a role do energy efficiency and resource conservation play in construction worldwide?

We always take those into account. For us, it goes without saying that we should be able to operate a building as economically as possible. The situation at each site determines what technology ends up being used. For example, an ice reservoir like we built in St. Georgen isn’t possible everywhere, but LED lighting in all new buildings is.

What is ebm-papst’s objective with the projects?

Construction is an important component of our growth strategy. Our main aim is to develop capacity to meet our needs. By positioning ourselves for growth, we can better support our customers in their development. And by globalizing our production network, we get closer to our customers. In addition to expanding capacity, that’s a main consideration behind our construction activity. It helps us to offer our customers much better service.